I worked for a local hobby shop for a couple of years as a side gig while I was in school.  It didn't pay the best but it was a little pocket money!

What I really enjoyed was:

1. Making lots of friends with coworkers and repeat customers that I still am in contact with today.

2. Getting hands-on experience with all the different scales and manufacturers and being able to try out all the new products.  I gained an absolute wealth of knowledge about product offerings, features, which items sell well and which ones sit, reliability issues with certain items, etc, etc.

3. Getting employee discounts *wink, wink*

4. Just being paid to be around the hobby I love.

Anyone who has a good local hobby shop and free time should definitely explore working there, if even just a day or two a week or over the Holidays.

Woody, very well spoken. You said a mouth full. Merry Christmas.

Funny you ask Jim. I did work for a well known train store many years ago and as Woody said so well - there were many benefits.

As I look to retire from a career in sales (with a couple of notable other jobs including conductor on a freight RR), I am hoping to replicate that experience as a side gig.

Paul

@jim sutter posted:

Stocking shelves. Unpacking boxes and putting price stickers on new inventory that just arrived. Running the store layout for who ever comes into the store. Visiting with customers as time permits. Helping in anyway you can. Answering the phone. Keep the place clean and rid up. If this is something you would like to do, talk to your local store owner. Ask them if they are hiring. Merry Christmas.

A fun and interesting thought to contemplate, Jim. 20 or 30 years ago. But nowadays local hobby shops are few and far between. Retail has changed; the way most of us buy our trains has changed. From retail stores to Internet purchasing. Sad, but a fact of life.

Those of you who were able to work in model train stores back in the day, especially this time of year, were very lucky.

I had a side gig installing electronic upgrades for a LHS when their regular installer got back up.   Worked for store credit, had fun hanging around the shop, talking to customers.

Now I'm retired I'd love to work part time during the busy months but alas, the two LHS shops in our area have closed.  

Ward

Gramptrains, Railrunnin, Yellowstone Special, and Ward H, Thank you for all of your responses. I enjoyed reading them. Christmas is my favorite time of the year and working in a train shop is like icing on the cake.

After 31.5 years in a profession akin to the years of technical education, I accepted the early-out offer and followed Dad's advice..."Do something entirely different!"  So I went to work for the LHS, Trains Dept..

Yepper, retail...behind the counter...trying to master 'counter-intelligence'. 

Then Covid hit.  When the store reopened with the barriers, the protocols, the caveats, etc., etc., blah, blah...it wasn't so much 'fun' anymore.  Coupled with a noticeable change in customers' attitudes  (often related to slow recovery/delivery of products/materials also victimized by the shutdowns), it became more arbiter-oriented...that 'tolerance'-thing.

Maybe being officially/genetically an "old phart" had something to do with it.  Dunno.  But it was time to hang it up...for good.  No regrets.  After 20+ years it was simply...time.

So, in answer to your original question:

Would you like to work in a train shop.?

...thanks, but 'been there, done that'.  Thoroughly enjoyed it...while it was fun!

BTW...Dad was right, after all.  However, I'm sorry he never had the chance to follow his own post-retirement advice.  He worked too many years in the life insurance business, investments department.  His dream was to work as a clerk at the local hardware store.  Unfortunately, declining health had a different plan for Dad.

So, if working at your local train shop is in your own dreams, I hope you'll have the chance to do so!

Merry Christmas and Best Wishers for the New Yearl!

KD

@Catonsville Central Railway posted:

I worked for a local hobby shop for a couple of years as a side gig while I was in school.  It didn't pay the best but it was a little pocket money! ...snip...

A few doors west of the White Coffee Pot Jr.?

@jim sutter posted:

Stocking shelves. Unpacking boxes and putting price stickers on new inventory that just arrived. Running the store layout for who ever comes into the store. Visiting with customers as time permits. Helping in anyway you can. Answering the phone. Keep the place clean and rid up. If this is something you would like to do, talk to your local store owner. Ask them if they are hiring. Merry Christmas.

The work appeals to me, the pay doesn't.

Gunrunner John,

Money isn't everything. Merry Christmas.

@jim sutter posted:

Gunrunner John,

Money isn't everything. Merry Christmas.

That's true, but when you need it, there's very few substitutes!

NEVER I'd have to deal with people like me!

@AlanRail posted:

NEVER I'd have to deal with people like me!

An excellent point!

I was offered a part-time job in a popular LHS years ago. I even did it for a day as a try-out. Problem was, the pay offered was pathetic and I would have had to take it in merchandise. Now remember, the owner bought that stuff at wholesale but I would have had to pay retail for it from my accumulated work credits with him. It didn’t see like a fair deal to me, so I declined. I would have enjoyed the work, but I’m not stupid!  

When I saw the question, I got excited and was hoping that it was a serious job offer. Oh well, back to what I was doing. 

Alas!  My nearest LHS is over 100 miles away, too long for a commute.  That and I already have two jobs, many responsibilities at church, and a needy piece of property to take car of, so I really don't have the time.

Besides, I'd have to find a place that would pay in vintage SG and Marx. . . .

Topic question:

"Would you like to work in a train shop?"

Absolutely not.

I've made the mistake of turning my hobbies into income before. I learned that is not a good plan for me.

Andre

Work is the key word here.    The hobby is fun because it is a hobby - I can do what I want when I want or not at all.    And I can play with the trains and select the ones I like.

If it became a job, stocking shelves, meeting a schedule, dealing with all sorts of customers, and then going home, I am afraid the hobby part would be gone.    First I would probably have my fill of talking and dealing with trains after spending all day at it, so I would probably not want to go down work on my own layout.    Second after hours on my feet doing all the chores, I would probably just be plain too tired.

I did some very part time work for a hobby shop back in the 80s before I had a job move.    The owner liked to go to the bigger local shows and he was a bit elderly.    So he would get a table or two, and one or two of us would go to the show with him and help man the tables.    he would cover all the travel expenses and food etc.    And he would give  us store credit at a low hourly rate.   I got 3 per hour, some of the other guys may have gotten more because they were with him longer.    he kept a little book of the credit.

When we used the credit, he did not charge full price.   That was in the days when Walthers sold to shops at 40% off list.   He usually gave us 20% off list.     I think these days the suppliers do not give such a big discount.  

It was fun and I would have liked to do more.   But I had a full time job that required some travel, and I had two small children that required some of my time and all the rest of life's obligations.

I worked at Macy’s on 34th street in Manhattan when I was in High School in 1963 during the Christmas season part time selling Lionel Trains & Aurora Race cars.

A woman came in one evening and said she was looking for a Lionel engine for her husband for Xmas. I showed her the $190.00 Lionel Hudson which was the most expensive one made. She said her husband would kill her. I told her he would love it. She bought it.

A week after Christmas I was at my counter talking with the head floor manager when this gentleman came over to us and said he wanted to talked to the fellow who sold his wife a Lionel Hudson. I thought uh oh! I told him it was I. He reached out and shook my hand and told me it was the best Christmas gift he had ever received.

That kind of made my day. 😊

I know a lifetime hunter and angler who became bored in retirement. Recently took a job at the state Dept of Fish & Wildlife dealing with people all day ... answering their questions, issuing licenses, stamps, tags, etc

He's still a "trainee" at $17.50/hr ... but loves every second of it. His days are happy.

(Also, the best benefits on the planet. lol)

Been there, done that.  Fifty some years ago. 

Started at Spark's Hobby Shop in Cleveland when I was 14.  75c per hour.  Made many friends; still have a couple of them!

Hobby House in Cleveland.  Big time pay increase to $1.40 per hour.

One Friday I had a very inebriated customer.  Dirty suit and shirt, cockeyed fedora.  Tells me he never had a train as a kid and wanted the biggest one we had.  It was a Tyco Mikado set, 81 bucks!  Reached in his sock and pulled out a roll and paid cash.  I told the boss that a set would be coming back when the customer sobers up and sees what he bought.  Didn't see him for the next few days.  Friday comes and here he is again; white shirt cleaned and pressed, sober and not disheveled.  Says to me:  I'd like to get some switches and a box car for the train you sold me!

another story...

We sold a lot of radio control stuff but there was only one customer that did RC car racing.  John Cary; a haberdasher at Bunce Brothers on Shaker Square.  Always suit and tie and fedora with a first class cigar.  We worked well together.   One day he shows up with a racing jacket with patches for every European road race you could think of.  I asked about the jacket and John said these were all of the races he participated in.  I was a little silent for a moment because John is black and I never heard of a black race car driver.  I think he detected my pause in conversation.  The next morning I hear this rumble coming down the street and it turns in to the shop.  John steps out of a Lotus Elite and opens the shop door and says:  Com'n kid, we're going for a ride!  What's that about a book and its cover????  Life lesson learned.

I always enjoyed the kids and their excitement when an order would come in form Cleveland Hobby SUpply (Tuesdays).  Couldn't  unpack the stuff fast enough.  Only ever had one irate customer.

Lou N

Perfect timing on this thread! My current place of employment ends tommorrow due to the owners retiring.

Where do I sign up? How much per hour? Insurance? Pension?.....

@Jim Sutter, Yes, Yes, Yes, I would love to work in a hobby shop at one of the larger privately owned model train stores, Selling, and Demonstrating  Lionel’s Legacy line of trains, showing our Younger, New Comers to the hobby, and Older Fellows just how much fun model Railroading really is. We do not have a hobby near where I live, 1 hour plus in one direction, 2 hours plus in the other direction. It’s a bummer. The only requirement is, there must be a decent inventory, a nice store train layout and display, and nice, kind folks with Optimism, to work with and for, I then would work on what ever salary/commission they offer. It’s not about the money, it’s Customer Satisfaction, my Obsession.  
@Captain John, I certainly enjoyed your story about the Lady and the gift she purchased for her husband, the 1963 model of the Lionel Hudson.
@Lou N, I also liked your story about the fellow that came in to your store in a state of condition giving you bad vibrations, but, in the long run you made him very happy. He came back for more track and supplies. No, we should never judge the book by the cover, there’s some really fine folks out there and we need to always treat people good. You never know what you reward might be.
My background is 56 years in commission sales, from the hardware industry, to Canon copier systems, to Honda Automotive… The customer was always right, even when We felt otherwise. Again, Customer Satisfaction.
This is a great Question, I look forward to more good stories, and if there was a good Hobbyshop in my neighborhood, I would love to help that owner be successful and make some young boy or Whomever, have Fun with model trains. It’s a people business. Happy Railroading Everyone

PS… I started in Hardware Sales on the road for Belknap, Louisville, Kentucky in 1964 fir 23 years, (they went out of business)  and You haven’t lived until you’ve sold Copiers, 8 years and You really haven’t lived until you’ve sold cars, you really get to see what folks are made of, 25 years… It was always fun, some days funner than others, but it was a living. God is Good. Merry Christmas to All.

I actually think about this as I contemplate post-retirement life from my current long-term career gig...

I would only work in a train shop if it was Jim's Train shop in Homer City PA

Leapinlarry, Belknap Hardware was one of the suppliers my great uncle and father bought from.

Jini5 That would of been great. You would of had a great time.

@Jim Sutter, Wow, it’s a small world, that’s nice to know, where was his store? I enjoyed working for Belknap and I have a lot of memorabilia from there, the Catalog, and their emblems. I wound up sales manager for the southern region, 41 men under me and we had fun working together. Feb 6, 1986, Noon, I received the call, our doors are closed. 1000 folks lost their jobs that day. Life goes on as you know, and in reality, I found better jobs. Merry Christmas, great question. Happy Railroading Everyone

I was offered the Postion of manager for a LHS in Roanoke the owner has been bugging me for years to run it for him sadly I had to decline for several reasons. First I am not ready to retire, VA is not as kind to retirees as PA as far as taxes are concerned and I would have to move there. So I settle for being a LHS bum hanging out with the owner whenever we are in Roanoke and just having a ball talking to folks and learning a lot from the owner and customers. That was how I met the owner over 35 years ago by just hanging out and talking. We have been great friends ever since. I have even made several trips to York and worked the store tables for them while they would shop. So I guess I have enjoyed all the benefits of working, the friendship and rewards in so many ways and not a penny was ever asked for but offered and refused many times. I don’t regret any of it and a actually look forward to ever time we visit Roanoke which is often as our oldest daughter and her family live there. Hope that answered your question Jim. Kinda of like what I did the time I visited your store and enjoyed every minute I was there, worth the three hour drive to visit your store.

My Great Uncles Hardware store was located on Main Street in Homer City, PA. It was a old fashion three story building loaded with items for sale.

Man, I would love to work at a train store. I tried to get a job at a local hobby shop a few years ago, but now the shop is closed. Oh well. At least I have a couple of train stores that I can shop for stuff for the layout I am planning on building.

Sure would. But they are all closed in my area.

I worked in a train store back in the 1980s.  My brother worked there too.  We loved every minute.  Seeing and trying out all the new things as they came out, etc.  Basically playing with trains all day.  Loved working on repairs, mostly to Lionel and Flyer.  Made many friends I still see at train shows, etc.  I took my pay in trade. We'd stay open on Christmas Eve just to do last minute repairs or sell small needed pieces, even a set or two.  The owner would buy lunch and we'd sit around and have fun just swapping stories and telling jokes.  Made many people happy by having their train up and running under the tree for Christmas.

That was back when there were at least 6 train stores or hobby shops within a 10 mile radius of my  small city.  Today there is one and it is 20 miles away.   My brother and I were practically begged to open up a shop when the one I worked at closed due  to the owner's poor health.  That part of the city just isn't a nice place anymore, plus my career wouldn't allow it.

Work in a train store?

I'm slowly going broke as it is, not working in a train store with this hobby, why would I want to make things worse and go broke faster???!!!

Tom

Been there, done that.  Never got a T Shirt.  LOL!

For about 3 years I worked in a train shop doing minor repairs, maintenance, packing orders, and every now and then running the register on Saturdays and holiday times.  It was a fun time and I really enjoyed everyone I worked with, if you can call it that.  The shop closed when the owner moved to be with his family.  I got my Saturdays back but lost some of the fun.  I still see the other guys.  It was interesting to see "the other side" of the counter and the things that we as consumers don't consider but has an impact on the dealer.

I wouldn't do it again until I retire.  It would be too much right now given the current state of my work schedule and dealing with a sick pup.

Here is a Train Shop for sale in Northern Michigan,

Also comes with a house. $639,000.  Your dream job!

(Click here) To see the listing.

Hope to see you out rail-fanning: Gary 🚂

@jim sutter posted:

Stocking shelves. Unpacking boxes and putting price stickers on new inventory that just arrived. Running the store layout for who ever comes into the store. Visiting with customers as time permits. Helping in anyway you can. Answering the phone. Keep the place clean and rid up. If this is something you would like to do, talk to your local store owner. Ask them if they are hiring. Merry Christmas.

While appealing at one level that's mainly fantasy, reality is harsh. Nearest shop that might qualify is across 2 states from me just under 80 miles one way.  Pay would less than any of my existing side gigs and another job just gives the tax man more and me less. Contrary to popular belief money matters; food, gas, bills, utilities and taxes cannot be paid for in model trains and toys. And I'm hearing that shop might not be there in the near future.  

If I didn't have a couple of health problems, You know, I wouldn't mind working in a train shop during the week of Christmas. I think it would be fun.

My brother use to work for local hobby shop in New Jersey, did not get paid cash but would take boxes of train parts for pay he would call them basket cases! he really liked the work and got many good trains but had to repair them, he really enjoyed the work! eventually the owner died, and he had to give it up !

Alan

@trainroomgary posted:

Cool, jerky flavored ice cream can be had there?

I sure wouldn't want to work in a model train store.

Think of each time you went into a hobby shop and you couldn't get waited on because there was that guy who was talking on and on about what kind of (impossible) layout they'd wanna make someday?

Or how about the too-common people in the hobby who equally lack in social skills and hygiene application? I was at a hobby shop in Portland a month ago and a guy walked by who smelled like he was trying to cure kimchee in a partially opened used colostomy bag. I almost wretched at his smell.

Imagine having to deal with that all day long? Nope, being a captive audience is bad enough for me when I'm manning a sales table at a model train show or showing off my layout.

Doing that daily, I'd want to strangle someone after enough times.